CONCERT OF PRAYER

Pray Week 717

“Temple Guard”

2 Cor 6:16 (ESV) …we are the temple of the living God…

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In a television commercial, Sally Fields intones ‘I’ve got this one body and this one life…’ as she makes the pitch to sell a drug against bone loss. When you stop to think about it, her statement is a profound truth. In this life we have only one frail and perishable body which the Word of God tells us is the temple of His Holy Spirit. So why don’t we guard it and care for it accordingly?

By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you. – 2 Tm 1:14

As born-again Christians, we are expected to act and behave as ‘temple guards’. We are expected to glorify God in our bodies.

…do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body. – 1 Cor 6:19

The temple of the Holy Spirit should not spew forth filth. Rather it should be a source of the cleansing, pure, living water of the Word of God. People should be drawn to the presence of God in His temple, not repulsed by an empty whitewashed tomb.

Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips! – Psa 141:3

The temple of the Holy Spirit should not be defiled with idols and the storage of impure things.

How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. – Psa 119:9

What we allow ourselves to see, hear, and ingest can be damaging to God’s temple. We need to guard against the feeding of our minds impure images and course talking. This is a challenge when we are immersed in a world environment that is hostile to God. This is why God’s Word exhorts us to daily put on the full armor of God giving us the shield and weapons to fend off the attack against the Temple of God. Unfortunately, too many of us neglect our armor or willfully indulge in entertainment activities that store impurity in our temple mind. Given the right trigger, what is stored within will eventually manifest itself.

There are idols that we worship with our temple bodies: things we turn to first, before turning to God for comfort and peace. Food, nicotine, alcohol, sex, materialism, and slothfulness can all become idols that defile and do irreparable damage to our temple body. Obesity is linked to adult onset diabetes and it has reached epidemic proportions in our society due to our sedentary lifestyle and idol worship of high calorie and high fat ‘comfort’ foods. The damage to our temple bodies from Type 2 Diabetes is totally preventable causing the CDC to consider this a ‘wasteful disease’.

Prayerfully assess your guardianship performance with respect to your physical body, the temple of the Holy Spirit. What is God asking you to change and improve upon? Be obedient to His leading and conviction. Can you enter into a lifestyle fast from all that is damaging to God’s temple? Will you seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness? Do you love Him enough to live a life in obedience to Him?

If you love me, you will keep my commandments. – John 14:15

Close in prayer, thanksgiving & rededication of your work to the glory of God